A hands-on, easy-to-comprehend guide that is perfect for anyone who needs to understand algorithms. With the explosive growth in the amount of data and the diversity of computing applications, efficient algorithms are needed now more than ever. Programming languages come and go, but the core of programming--algorithms and data structures--remains the same.  Absolute Beginner's Guide to Algorithms is the fastest way to learn algorithms and data structures. Using helpful diagrams and fully annotated code samples in Javascript, you will start with the basics and gradually go deeper and broader into all the techniques you need to organize your data.   Start fast with data structures basics: arrays, stacks, queues, trees, heaps, and more Walk through popular search, sort, and graph algorithms Understand Big-O notation and why some algorithms are fast and why others are slow Balance theory with practice by playing with the fully functional JavaScript implementations of all covered data structures and algorithms Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Data Structures   Chapter 1. Introduction to Data Structures .................................................................. 1      Right Tool for the Right Job .................................................................................... 2      Back to Data Structures ........................................................................................... 5      Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 6   Chapter 2. Big-O Notation and Complexity Analysis ................................................... 7      It's Example Time ...................................................................................................... 8      It's Big-O Notation Time! .......................................................................................11      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................15   Chapter 3. Arrays ....................................................................................................... 17      What Is an Array? ....................................................................................................18      Array Implementation / Use Cases .......................................................................24      Arrays and Memory ................................................................................................26      Performance Considerations .................................................................................30      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................32   Chapter 4. Linked Lists ............................................................................................... 35      Meet the Linked List ...............................................................................................36      Linked List: Time and Space Complexity .............................................................40      Linked List Variations ..............................................................................................41      Implementation .......................................................................................................44      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................52   Chapter 5. Stacks ........................................................................................................ 53      Meet the Stack ........................................................................................................54      A JavaScript Implementation ................................................................................56      Stacks: Time and Space Complexity ....................................................................58      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................59   Chapter 6. Queues ..................................................................................................... 61      Meet the Queue .....................................................................................................62      A JavaScript Implementation ................................................................................64      Queues: Time and Space Complexity ..................................................................66      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................67   Chapter 7. Trees ......................................................................................................... 69      Trees 101 .................................................................................................................70      Height and Depth ...................................................................................................75      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................77   Chapter 8. Binary Trees .............................................................................................. 79      Meet the Binary Tree ..............................................................................................80      A Simple Binary Tree Implementation ..................................................................86      Conclusion ...............................................................................................................89   Chapter 9. Binary Search Trees ................................................................................... 91      It's Just a Data Structure ........................................................................................93      Implementing a Binary Search Tree ....................................................................103      Performance and Memory Characteristics .........................................................110      Conclusion .............................................................................................................112   Chapter 10. Heaps ...................................................................................................... 113      Meet the Heap ......................................................................................................114      Heap Implementation ..........................................................................................126      Performance Characteristics ................................................................................132      Conclusion .............................................................................................................134   Chapter 11. Hashtable (aka Hashmap or Dictionary) .................................................. 137      A Very Efficient Robot ..........................................................................................138      From Robots to Hashing Functions ....................................................................142      From Hashing Functions to Hashtables .............................................................145      JavaScript Implementation/Usage ......................................................................148      Dealing with Collisions .........................................................................................150      Performance and Memory ...................................................................................151      Conclusion .............................................................................................................153   Chapter 12. Trie (aka Prefix Tree) ............................................................................... 155      What Is a Trie? ......................................................................................................156      Diving Deeper into Tries ......................................................................................167      Many More Examples Abound! ..........................................................................172      Implementation Time ...........................................................................................173      Performance ..........................................................................................................179      Conclusion .............................................................................................................181   Chapter 13. Graphs .................................................................................................... 183      What Is a Graph? ..................................................................................................184      Graph Implementation .........................................................................................190      Conclusion .............................................................................................................196   Part II: Algorithms   Chapter 14. Introduction to Recursion ....................................................................... 199      Our Giant Cookie Problem ..................................................................................200      Recursion in Programming ..................................................................................202      Conclusion .............................................................................................................206   Chapter 15. Fibonacci and Going Beyond Recursion ................................................. 207      Recursively Solving the Fibonacci Sequence ....................................................209      Recursion with Memoization ...............................................................................213      Taking an Iteration-Based Approach ..................................................................215      Going Deeper on the Speed ..............................................................................217      Conclusion .............................................................................................................218   Chapter 16. Towers of Hanoi ...................................................................................... 221      How Towers of Hanoi Is Played ..........................................................................222      The Single Disk Case ...........................................................................................223      It's Two Disk Time .................................................................................................224      Three Disks ............................................................................................................225      The Algorithm .......................................................................................................228      The Code Solution ...............................................................................................229      Check Out the Recursiveness! ............................................................................231      It's Math Time ........................................................................................................232      Conclusion .............................................................................................................234   Chapter 17. Search Algorithms and Linear Search ..................................................... 235      Linear Search .........................................................................................................236      Conclusion .............................................................................................................241   Chapter 18. Faster Searching with Binary Search ....................................................... 243      Binary Search in Action ........................................................................................243      The JavaScript Implementation ..........................................................................250      Runtime Performance ...........................................................................................254      Conclusion .............................................................................................................257   Chapter 19. Binary Tree Traversal ............................................................................... 259      Breadth-First Traversal ..........................................................................................260      Depth-First Traversal ............................................................................................265      Implementing Our Traversal Approaches ..........................................................270      Performance of Our Traversal Approaches ........................................................278      Conclusion .............................................................................................................279   Chapter 20. Depth-First Search (DFS) and Breadth-First Search (BFS) ....................... 281      A Tale of Two Exploration Approaches ..............................................................282      It's Example Time ..................................................................................................285      When to Use DFS? When to Use BFS? ..............................................................298      A JavaScript Implementation ..............................................................................300      Performance Details .............................................................................................307      Conclusion .............................................................................................................308   Chapter 21. Quicksort ................................................................................................ 309      A Look at How Quicksort Works .........................................................................310      Another Simple Look ...........................................................................................314      It's Implementation Time .....................................................................................319      Performance Characteristics ................................................................................322      Conclusion .............................................................................................................323   Chapter 22. Bubblesort .............................................................................................. 325      How Bubblesort Works ........................................................................................326      Walkthrough ..........................................................................................................329      The Code ...............................................................................................................333      Conclusion .............................................................................................................333   Chapter 23. Insertion Sort .......................................................................................... 335      How Insertion Sort Works ....................................................................................336      One More Example ..............................................................................................347      Algorithm Overview and Implementation .........................................................349      Performance Analysis ...........................................................................................351      Conclusion .............................................................................................................353   Chapter 24. Selection Sort ......................................................................................... 355      Selection Sort Walkthrough .................................................................................356      Algorithm Deep Dive ...........................................................................................364      The JavaScript Implementation ..........................................................................366      Conclusion .............................................................................................................369   Chapter 25. Mergesort ............................................................................................... 371      How Mergesort Works .........................................................................................372      Mergesort: The Algorithm Details ......................................................................379      Looking at the Code ............................................................................................380      Conclusion .............................................................................................................381   Conclusion .................................................................................................................383   Index ............................................................................................................................ 387